| Summer Reflections |
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| Thursday, 06 July 2006 09:26 | |||
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“Summertime, and the livin’ is easy.” The song from George Gershwin’s folk opera, “Porgy and Bess,” reminds us that for some, at least, the summer calendar is a bit lighter than at other times of the year. The season offers opportunities for more tranquil reflection, meditation, discernment. Some may be able to get away to the ocean, the Sound, or the lakes for rejuvenation. “A Sea Symphony” by Vaughan Williams or Claude Debussy’s “La Mer” can help wherever we are. No pun intended, but events and developments from the previous months can sink in and resonate more deeply in our consciousness during this time. With reflection, the generosity of our people across the Archdiocese becomes all the more impressive. Right now the results of the Archbishop’s Annual Appeal show a total of $8,652,910, run-ning $230,000 ahead of the Appeal last year at this time. And we are still going! Last year’s Appeal reached a total of $8.7 million by the end of December. With all the difficulties and challenges, your support and loyalty continue to edify. The services that the Appeal makes possible are, of course, a special focus of our contemplation: pastoral services, educational services, social services, health care services. All those are works that reflect our core values and sustain the advance of our mission. Crucially important programs and activities across the three counties of the Archdiocese provide lifelines that prevent people in need from falling through the cracks. Our new initiatives continue to move forward. “Cathedral Green,” the program to provide three-bedroom and two-bedroom apartments of affordable and supportive housing in the former St. Joseph Cathedral School, shows more promise every month. The Malta House of Care, a free clinic developed with the Knights and Dames of Malta to provide health care for people without health insurance, will launch its van this month to bring its services to seven of our inner-city Hartford parishes. People of all faiths, or no particular faith, will be welcome. We will again be able to provide scholarships to students in every one of our parish elementary schools to enable youngsters to have the benefit of a Catholic school education. Parents and youngsters continue to write moving letters on the difference these grants make in enabling children to have that treasured experience. The conversion of St. Donato’s Church in New Haven into a new and acutely needed Catholic Charities Center will see significant development this autumn. The new Institute for Hispanic Families is also moving with measurable progress. Our summer reflections help us to realize all the more the significance of the Appeal and the services it produces. It is all about people: generous people who give and people in need who receive. We can never forget, however, that no one has a monopoly on gifts or need. We all receive and we all give. Everyone is sacred. A footnote may be introduced here. While reflecting on the sacred, it was disturbing to read an account of a performance on the fifth night of summer in Hartford that involved among its “production values” a caricature of a huge mirrored cross to which the performer was strapped. We are told that a “microphone affixed to the cross made the whole thing resemble a press conference from Calvary as imagined by Monty Python” (Hartford Courant, June 26, p.1). More reflection on the sacred is needed during the summer and all year long. When someone abuses Jewish beliefs, its images and religious leaders, sanctions follow, and rightly so. The results are similar, or more severe, when one dishonors the Koran and the beliefs of Islam. When Jesus Christ and the sacred beliefs of Christians are the target, freedom of speech becomes the ultimate priority. There is serious need for reflection. In the early days of July 2006, we are reminded of those heady days 230 years ago when our nation’s founders gathered in Philadelphia to draft the Declaration of Independence. The fundamental conviction was advanced that all are created equal and endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, and among these are the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Some years later, John Adams, the first vice president and later president of the United States, said that the Constitution was made for a moral and religious people. Our religious convictions and our national heritage root us in the sacred, as sons and daughters of God. Your generosity and the services you enable continue to be a light in the midst of a broken world. Thank you for the enrichment you provide for our summer reflections.
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